Returning Grace A Troy Game Fic
by Anjirika
Summary: Inspired by the 'Troy Game' by Sara Douglass. Spoilers for 'Druids Sword' especially since it is a coda to the epilogue. The one scene or scenes that I thought should have been added to make the store PERFECT! Please read and review!


A/N- Just like the title says, this is the last scene which wraps up how Grace returns. I loved _The Troy Game_ by Sara Douglass so much- it was one of those rare books that I could never get down and one of those rare books that made me laugh, cry and gasp in amazement and yet despite all that I did feel a bit cheated by the very end. It needed one or two more scenes and thus I have done what I always do- written it myself.

Returning Grace

"Go away," he whispered one last futile time, and then he rose, walked over to the door, and opened it.

"Oh Jack!" cried a voice as the speaker; a woman flung herself at the man before her. He seemed to be in as worse a state as she was but the only thing that she cared about was comforting him. "Oh Jack!" She, Grace Orr the daughter of Noah Banks and Weyland Orr, Darkwitch and Mistress of the Labyrinth combined cried as she held the man she loved. "I am so sorry." Grace stated as she held onto Jack as tight as she could. "I'm so sorry, so sorry. I tried to reach out for you but the Idyll wouldn't let me and-"

And she was stopped by the soul-crushing hug that she found herself enveloped in. She let out a little laugh as Jack pulled her into the room, lifted her up and swung her about. "Jack!" Grace cried, her tears gone only laughter remaining. "Jack let me down..."

He complied of course, but not after giving her another bone-crushing embrace and a passionate kiss. "How?" he breathed out, his hands cupping her face. "What happened?"

Grace merely smiled and told her beloved Jack what she had told Malcolm. She told him of how the Idyll had been the one to save her from Catling's hex and how she had been trapped for the past thirty years unable to reach Faerie and the mortal world. "I tried to reach out to you Jack," she whispered as she buried her head once more into Jack's shoulder. "I honestly tried but there was no way..."

"Gods Grace..." Jack whispered holding on to Grace as tight as he could. "...I thought,"

"I know." Grace interrupted her eyes filling with tears once more as she looked up at Jack-Louis-William-Brutus the man who had helped to start and to finish everything. "I know what you thought and I am sorry of what you had to go through."

"I'm not sorry." Jack stated with a newfound smile as he brushed her tears away. "You're home now, here with me and if the past thirty years was my price for starting that damn Troy Game in the first place as well as my price for how I let you get hexed well then so be it..."

Grace's heart soared as Jack leaned down for another kiss and together as Mistress and Kingman they sent out a call to all who would listen.

---

Matilda, Ecub and Erith were the first ones to arrive at Copt Hall. Despite being killed by Catling and cut from being tied to the Troy Game their reincarnated forms had somehow miraculously remembered everything and when they had been born as triplets the land had rejoiced for the sisters of Eaving had returned at last.

"I felt a call from Jack, Malcolm-" Matilda now Madeline Hart of London began as she stepped through the doors. "What is going on?"

"Yes," agreed Ecub now Elyse Hart. "What has happened? The Troy Game is gone and-"

"-and yet something has changed," Erith now Erin Hart interrupted as she stepped over the threshold as well. "Something has changed. But what?"

Malcolm merely smiled. The sisters of Eaving may have lost all the powers that they had commanded in a previous life but their hearts and intuition were as sharp as ever. "Jack will tell you all when the others arrive."

"Others?" Asked Madeline sharply when suddenly she heard two more voices coming up the veranda steps.

"I don't know why your son would call us here now," Ariadne, dressed in her usual red began as she and Silvus dressed in forest green approached the door. "I mean we just visited and-"

"Ariadne?" asked Madeline

"Silvus?" asked Elyse.

"What are you doing here?" Erin asked as well earning a confused look from both the new comers.

"Malcolm," Silvus began warily. "Who are these people?"

"Why they are-"

"Matilda! Ecub! Erith!" cried out another voice none other than Noah who pushed past Ariadne and Silvus to embrace her friends and sisters. "Oh you three, we thought we had lost you to the otherworld forever."

"Not forever Noah," comforted Madeline. "The otherworld sent us back to you now long after the completion of the Troy Game."

A dark look crossed over Noah's face and Madeline instantly knew that something had gone horribly wrong. "Noah," she began a little more quietly as she saw Weyland join Ariadne and Silvus on the veranda. "Where is Grace?"

"If you will excuse me," Malcolm cut in seeing Harry and Stella arriving and stopping Noah from telling her dear friends and lost sisters what had happened to Grace. "But seeing how you are all here, Jack will see you in the drawing room."

---

The drawing room was cast in shadows from the raging fire and Jack stood before it his arms resting on the mantle. He had known the instant Ariadne, Silvus, Noah and Weyland had arrived and he was not shocked at all by the appearance of Grace's parents. He could tell that they had no idea that their daughter was back and yet he knew that they always had been blind to her so it was no surprise. What was a surprise to him was feeling the gentle soul's of Eaving's Sisters. 'How did I not know that they had been reborn?'

"Yes Jack," answered Madeline as she walked into the drawing room. "How is it that you didn't know that we were here?"

Jack merely turned and shrugged his shoulders playing the part of a grieving man. Madeline did nothing but cross the room and give him a gentle, comforting hug. "Noah has told us all that has happened since we last saw you all. Know that Eaving's sisters share your grief."

Jack nodded and watched as Elyse and Erin entered the drawing room followed by Ariadne and Silvus who came in hand in hand followed by Harry and Stella, Malcolm and a very tentative Noah and Weyland. Once they had all settled Jack smiled slowly and began to speak. "My friends, I know that the past thirty years have been hard on us all. Some of us had to go through our first thirty years all over again," he smiled warmly at Eaving's Sisters. "Some of us have had to rebuild our land," he turned to Harry otherwise known as the Lord of Faerie and his beloved Caroller-Stella. "Some of us have just lived enjoying each other's company-" Jack turned to his father and Ariadne and smiled. "-and some of us have had to live with a grief so profound so deep that we thought we would not be able to go on." He was of course referring to himself, but Jack could hear a small sob escape from Noah and he could sense Weyland tightening his arms around his wife. How much those two had had to suffer over the past centuries, their baby girl born from love and trust bound to the ultimate evil, drawn into herself and then out into the world by none-other than himself only to be lost to that evil for all eternity...or so they thought.

"But it has been thirty years," Jack continued- his hand stretching out to the shadows. "And I have a surprise for you all."

They all heard footfalls as someone came out of the shadows and as soon as her face was illuminated, the faces of Noah and Weyland turned from despair to utter joy. "Grace," Noah muttered as she rose to her feet and crossed the drawing room to embrace her little girl. "My baby Grace..."

"My little girl," Weyland whispered as well as he wrapped his arms around both Noah and Grace hardly noticing nor caring that he, Noah along with everyone else were either crying or laughing.

"It's okay," Grace whispered as her parents withdrew from her. "I'm okay, and I'm home to stay..."

Once everyone had had their turn to say hello to their saviour Jack spoke up causing all eyes to look at him. "I know that this is a great surprise," he began noticing for the first time how the diamond bracelets that he had given her so long ago still sparkled brilliantly in the firelight. "But you really must hear Grace's story."

And so, Grace told her tale with everyone weeping by the end and realising that while the last thirty years had indeed been hell that hell was now over, for their Grace had returned.


End file.
